Your Food Source
Would you eat meat if you had to kill it yourself? I'd like to think that I would, but I've never killed anything bigger than a spider before so it could go either way. I've cut down my meat consumption considerably because of this dilemma, but I did make a really good (and small) hamburger yesterday.
I prefer to have an emotional attachment before killing it. Ideally, I'd like to pinpoint my food, trap it, kill it at close range, gut it, chop it up, and have it butchered.
I'd probably be a vegetarian if I had to kill my own meat. BUT, I think that's just because I've never been exposed to it in my life, being far far removed from my meat in its original form. If I had grown up on a farm or something, I'm sure I'd be fine with it.
And I think hunger tends to remove reservations and "ick" factor. Have you watched Survivor? People who were pampered in their normal lives will kill rats with a stone and then gnaw on the itty bitty rat flesh.
I don't watch Survivor, but I can imagine.
Something tells me you haven't actually done it.Originally Posted by Sylvie
That's why I said ideally. I know enough to be sure about the first few steps of the process, but I don't have trapping down in my book and I've never done it for the purpose of food.
...I don't know if I would be able to kill my own steak. Just like I don't want to know what they put in chicken nuggets, I don't want to know how much my cow suffered just to satisfy a hungry Homo sapien.
Also: Beatrice Arthur KFC cruelty - YouTube
I've actually thought about this quite a bit from time to time. My honest answer is that I would probably up my meat consumption if I were to have to hunt/kill my own food source. If I kill a pig/cow/duck/deer I'm not going to let my hard work go to waste.
I'd like to hunt, once in my life. Just to see what it's like I guess?
I think there must be great satisfaction in humanely shooting a deer, butchering it yourself and knowing you have many different preparations of meat and organ you can either sell or essentially kept yourself fed with for like a year if you freeze it correctly.
Having grown up on a farm, I've never actually done the killing, but I don't see myself having a problem with it (even though it's not an experience I would relish).
I think if I was starving and desperate I would.
I'm not a big fan of killing things; I'm that person who escorts spiders outside instead of kill them. But sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
Last edited by Pike; 01-06-2012 at 04:28 PM.
It would depend on the method for me mainly. Generic hunting with a rifle I could deal with, though I don't think I'd enjoy the experience. But if someone wanted me to break a chicken's neck with my hands while it kicked around they could get smurfed. I understand that it's supposed to be a quick and clean way to go or something, but I guess a lifetime of action movies have imprinted the idea of the neck break being an act of immense savagery in my mind and I just couldn't do it to a defenseless little chicken smurf that.
but yeah generally I think it would be the method that would be the deciding factor.
You said 'meat'
I've gone fishing.
Back in the day my grandparents brought home live chickens.
I'm "Chinese". We're barbarians (supposedly). So yes.
I saw a pic of dead baby stew (probably on cracked.com - I have a messed up track of memories). Yum.
Indeed. If I'm going to kill something myself and go to the effort to butcher it, then I'm going to damn well eat as much of it as I can. Letting the meat waste would be a terrible shame, and disrespectful to the animal that died so that I can continue to thrive.
As to the original question though, no I don't think I'd have any problem slaughtering an animal myself for food. I've seen video of animals being killed and butchered, and am familiar enough with the techniques even if I've never seen it in person or done it myself. What it come down to for me is that I enjoy meat. It's an essential part of my diet, and if the only way for me to get it was to kill it myself I would kill it myself and have no qualms with it.
I'm in Eastern Kentucky. That should say enough by itself, but I don't actually hunt. I have been tricked into eating raw deer meat, and I've had freshly killed pig, cow, deer, turkey, fish, and chicken. I've seen most of those killed, cleaned, and cooked from start to finish except the cow and deer. My great-great-grandmother used to let me watch as she'd pick out a chicken, swing it around over her head until its neck broke, then clean it and fry it up. She was ~90 at the time. She had a large scar on the side of her face where a rooster attacked her one time she was killing one of his bitches.
Master of the Fork
Cid's Knight
I don't do it but my daddy does. A lot. He kills and processes his own meat. And its soooooo much tastier and healthier than store bought meat. They add in a lot of fat to the meat they sell in stores and its greesey and gross. I also have always lived on a ranch so having the neighbors cow wasn't weird either. I just dont do any of it.myself though i'm sure if I needed too i could.
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